For various reasons, it may be desirable to ensure that a used container, such as a bottle intended to contain spirits, is not re-filled with a replacement quantity of liquid, the characteristics and quality of which may differ from the original contents. Attempts to provide closures which make such re-filling difficult are not always proof against determined tampering. While it is considered advantageous to provide a tamper-indicating means which provides evidence that the bottle and its original contents are intact, if the bottle is resealed with a substitute cap or closure, there may be little to indicate to the purchaser that the bottle has been tampered with and that the contents may be inferior to the original contents.
It is, therefore, very important that an original closure cannot be removed without an extreme level of effort, or breakage being caused to the bottle.
It has, therefore, been found desirable to provide a closure means adapted to fit over and enclose a bottle neck portion, in which there is provided an arrangement of projections on the closure means that are caused to engage below a shoulder formed on a bottle neck. Such an arrangement is shown, for example, in GB Patent No. 2 274 837 also by the present Applicant, selected merely by way of illustration of a closure means including a tubular means provided with projections of the type referred to.
Due to the practical constraints of moulding techniques hitherto used to produce tubular means having inwardly and upwardly projections provided on inwardly facing surfaces thereof, there have been many attempts to facilitate both manufacture of tubular means and their application to bottle necks. For example, the projections have been moulded of resilient plastics material to facilitate their engagement with the shoulder. Alternatively, the projections may be hinged so as to enable efficient mould release. However, it will be appreciated that such resilient characteristics may be inconsistent with irremovable engagement with the shoulder.
Further, while it is very important that an original closure cannot be removed without visible damage or breakage being caused either to the closure or to the bottle, it has been found that a closure that cannot readily be removed will become the target of attempts to re-fill the container by overcoming any features provided in the closure intended to hinder or prevent this. Therefore in addition to providing devices to prevent re-filling of bottles, it has been found preferable to provide such devices with further tamper-indicating features which, while not acting in any preventative role, give a clear indication that a bottle has been opened since being originally filled with the genuine contents.
Furthermore, there is a need for simple designs of closure assemblies allowing easy and reliable manufacture, assembly and fitting to bottle necks. Such simplicity has been somewhat lacking in previous closure designs.
It is an object of at least one aspect of the present invention to obviate or mitigate at least one of the aforementioned problems/disadvantages in the prior art.